Constructing Gender Through Quoted Voices:

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http://i.huffpost.com/gen/75623/thumbs/r-WHISPER-large570.jpg

a quantitative study Paul De Decker

Department of Linguistics

Memorial University of Newfoundland pauldd@mun.ca

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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I said, “ ...”

She went, “...”

He was like, “...”

What I want to do today is examine how language is used in a relatively restricted context - in the words that follow verbs of quotation.

Sociolinguistic research has provided much to our understanding of forms like “I said”, she went, and he was like...

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Previous Work in NL

D’Arcy 2004 8 Adolescents 6 Preadolescents

= 14 speakers

184 quotative tokens St. John’s

Recorded 1999-2000

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Results: St. John’s vs. Toronto

D’Arcy 2004

no difference between St. John’s and Toronto be like is #1

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Results: Quotative and Age

D’Arcy 2004

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Class Survey

LINGUISTICS 2210 Fall 2012

= 520 responses Survey Elicitation

Do you say things like:

"I was like "_____" ?

"I went "_____" ?

"I said "_____" ?

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Results: Region of Origin

0 25 50 75 100

Mainland Canada St. John’s Avalon Elsewhere

Like Go Say

Say beats out GO and LIKE everywhere.

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0 25 50 75 100

Females Males

LIKE GO SAY

Results: Gender

Females more likely to use LIKE and SAY than males.

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Results: Age

0 25 50 75 100

50s 60s 70s 80s 90s

Decade of Birth

LIKEGO SAY

SAY is stable

GO is on the climb

BUT huge gains/Incremental increase in the use of LIKE over generations.

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“ ”

Reports like these show us which verbs of quotation are used, and who uses them. However, <click>

very little work has looked at what falls inside the quotation marks. What I would like to show you today is how quoted speech functions as a sociolinguistically conditioned site of creativity and outline how

speakers choose how to recreate the speech of other talkers.

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“ ”

^?

Reports like these show us which verbs of quotation are used, and who uses them. However, <click>

very little work has looked at what falls inside the quotation marks. What I would like to show you today is how quoted speech functions as a sociolinguistically conditioned site of creativity and outline how

speakers choose how to recreate the speech of other talkers.

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Linguistic Creativity

When we think of linguistic creativity, we probably think of Chomsky’s notes concerning the highly creative nature of language. <CLICK>

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(Chomsky 1964, pg. 8)

★ finite linguistic resources

★ “indefinite number of new utterances”

Given finite linguistic resources, speakers can produce an “indefinite number of new utterances”.

But is this all we can say about linguistic creativity?

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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

Is that all?

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Creativity, too.

Consider the following excerpts taken from sociolinguistic interviews collected in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Example 1: young adult male talking about how others saw grad night at his high school.

Example 2: young adult male quoting his sister on her views on parenting...

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

“Seriously? Your dress cost a thousand dollars, and this is the

high point of your life?”

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

“Yeah but, dad - dad paid for it, and he's kind of

attractive, right?”

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

“Go on. I wants to be an aunt,”

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Creativity, too.

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Creativity, too.

“I wants the kids but I don’t

want to take care of

‘em.”

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Creativity, too.

‘em.”

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Creativity, too.

“Ha. Ha. That’s not how it works.”

‘em.”

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Example 3: young male talking about “stupid” customers at his music store.

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Some guys will come in and want to know everything, but other guys are

just like,

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just like,

“Wha- what’s the cheapest thing I can

get, like, best quality but

cheapest.”

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just like,

cheapest.”

and like,

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just like,

cheapest.”

and like,

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just like,

cheapest.”

and like,

“I wants something that records awesome

for like, fifty bucks!”

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The styles of speech you just heard all involve verbs of quotation. The spoken forms that follow them, I argue, are sites of sociolinguistically conditioned creativity. <CLICK>

First, quoted speech stylistically departs from the way a speaker typically talks.

I argue that this type of linguistic creativity is defined by two features: <CLICK> namely bricolage and

<CLICK> framing.

I will then show you how these features play out in a specific case by considering how quotatives and quoted speech allow Newfoundlander narrators to construct the social identity(ies) of the person

they’re quoting.

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Verbs of Quotation & Quoted Speech = sociolinguistically conditioned creativity

<CLICK> framing.

they’re quoting.

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stylistic variation

<CLICK> framing.

they’re quoting.

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stylistic variation bricolage

<CLICK> framing.

they’re quoting.

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stylistic variation bricolage

framing

<CLICK> framing.

they’re quoting.

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Voicing

Couper-Kuhlen 1998

The alteration of voice-quality to imitate or present affective stance towards

the speaker or what the speaker said.

Concerning the property of framing, discourse phoneticians working on quotatives have proposed a model of variation called VOICING.

This model views variation in quoted speech as the alteration of voice-qualities to imitate or present affective stance towards the speaker or what the speaker said.

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“The low pitched voice... strongly contrasts with the just quoted hysterical shouting and re-anchors the commentary in the reporting situation, indexing that

it is [the narrator] again who is talking.”

Gunthner 1998

Pitch

Research on VOICING has been strictly qualitative and impressionistic...

“The low pitched voice... strongly contrasts with the just quoted hysterical shouting and re- anchors the commentary in the reporting situation, indexing that it is [Eva] again who is

talking.”

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Klewitz & Couper-Kuhlen 1999

“Prosodic changes can function like quotation marks in written texts by clearly delimiting left and right hand

boundaries of the reported sequence”

Prosody

....

In the examples we heard, it is clear that voice-related variation was used. In some cases, it involved a change in pitch, rate of speech, or distinctly different vowel pronunciations. In some cases, it was all 3.

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Variation in Pitch

Pilot Study

I started off looking at a relatively simple example of performance using quoted materials and examined one property of voice-quality, Pitch, by studying the speech of foul-mouthed comedian George Carlin in his little known role as the narrator of the children’s stories,

Thomas the Tank Engine.

When he narrated the story itself, the pitch of his voice was relatively low - 144 Hz.

However, when he shifted into quoting or performing Thomas or Percy, two eager and enthusiastic steam engines, his pitch dramatically increased (f0 = 207 Hz).

In contrast, none of the vowels under investigation showed any sign of change.

non-quoted pitch values ! ! quoted speech values (M=144 Hz, SD=54 Hz)!! ! (M=207 Hz, SD=69 Hz)

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Pilot Study

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Pilot Study

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Pilot Study

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Non-Quoted

Quoted

110 Hz 135 Hz 160 Hz 185 Hz 210 Hz

Pilot Study

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t(138)=5.9674, p =0.0001

Non-Quoted

Quoted

110 Hz 135 Hz 160 Hz 185 Hz 210 Hz

Pilot Study

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the processes by which social objects are used to create new cultural identities

Bricolage

(Eckert 1996, Hebdige 1984)

So, what’s behind this process of Voicing? Where do the voice features come from? I suggest that it is not a random process but rather speakers draw on other linguistic resources found throughout their speech community.

Quoted speech then, is the outcome of assembling vocal properties and using them in creative ways.

The assembling of such properties called bricolage which is defined as: the processes by which people acquire objects from across social divisions to create new cultural identities

This was most recently considered by Eckert (1996) who saw stylistic variation as an appropriation of culturally meaningful linguistic objects.

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Voice as a

Creative Object

phonation type

Creaky Whispery

Breathy Modal

pronunciation

Vowels Consonants

pitch, stress, intonation

In theory, any linguistic feature can belong to the set of resources available for bricolage and hence creative re-purposing.

I will focus on one property - the pronunciation of vowels.

However, there is some evidence that shows phonation type is used creatively in constructed dialogue. CLICK...

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higher rates of non-modal phonation types in constructed dialogue

Podesva 2010

and these linguo-vocal features seem to occur more often in constructed dialogue (or quoted speech).

But we’ll start with vocalic based properties.

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Quotatives Project

Townies, Baymen, Labradorians Early to mid t wenties

Conversational style recordings

45 Participants, approx. 50 hours

In order to understand more about the sociolinguistic choices that speakers make when

quoting another talker, I turn now to my larger project on Quotative Behaviour in St. John’s, NL.

Data were recorded Summer 2011 - Summer 2012 CLICK... more than 3,400 tokens

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Quotatives Project

> 3, 412

verbs of quotation (and counting) Townies, Baymen, Labradorians

Early to mid t wenties

Conversational style recordings

45 Participants, approx. 50 hours

In order to understand more about the sociolinguistic choices that speakers make when

quoting another talker, I turn now to my larger project on Quotative Behaviour in St. John’s, NL.

Data were recorded Summer 2011 - Summer 2012 CLICK... more than 3,400 tokens

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Do speakers pronounce their vowels differently when quoting the words of other speakers?

Do males quote differently than females?

Are male quotees represented differently than females?

Quotatives Project

Some of the preliminary questions behind the project.

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Subjects: 4 males, 4 females aged 20-27,

university educated

Methodology

Recording: 1 on 1, recorded by a close friend

Interviewers: 3 female linguistically trained undergraduates, conversation designed to elicit

narratives of personal experience and quoted speech

8 university educated young adults

recorded by a close friend (member of the research team) conversations were designed to elicit quoted speech

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(Clarke 2010) Lax Vowels

KIT DRESS TRAP/BATH

LOT/CLOTH/THOUGHT STRUT

Tense Vowels GOAT

GOOSE FLEECE

FACE PALM

Diphthongs PRICE/PRIZE

Traditional NLE Vowels

So, what can NLers do to creatively VOICE the gender of their quotee/character? Well, then can choose to use modern, mainland, standard variants or select among a number of traditional vowel pronunciations.

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5 tokens per vowel category

N = 80 per speaker per condition 1. he was like “...”

2. she was like “...”

For each of the highlighted lexical sets, 5 tokens were analyzed across the 2 conditions

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50% 80%

20%

Acoustic Analysis

F2 = vowel frontness F0 = pitch

F1 = vowel height Length = duration

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Statistical Test: t-tests

Pitch: separate tests for Males and Females

F1 and F2 normalized using NORM (Thomas and Kendall 2007)

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RESULTS

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Lax Vowels KIT

DRESS TRAP/BATH

Tense Vowels GOAT

GOOSE FLEECE

FACE PALM

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Lax Vowels KIT

DRESS TRAP/BATH

Tense Vowels GOAT

GOOSE FLEECE

FACE PALM

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LOT

lowering/raising (F1)

200Hz 300Hz 400Hz 500Hz 600Hz

She He

p < .05

First, we see some significant variation in the LOT vowel (F1):

Females portray speech from other females with a lowered LOT vowel.

Highest LOT variants are found when females quote males.

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LOT

fronting/backing (F2)

1,000Hz 1,100Hz 1,200Hz 1,300Hz 1,400Hz

She He

p < .05

More variation in LOT, this time (F2):

Females portray speech from other females with a fronted LOT vowel.

Most retracted LOT is found when females quote males.

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GOAT fronting

(F2)

1,000Hz 1,100Hz 1,200Hz 1,300Hz 1,400Hz

She He

p < .05

The next significant finding shows a difference for GOAT along (F2):

Females portray speech from other females with more retracted GOAT vowels. When quoting males, we see relatively more fronted GOAT

variants.

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1,000Hz 1,150Hz 1,300Hz 1,450Hz 1,600Hz

She He

GOOSE

fronting/backing (F2)

p < .05

Finally, GOOSE (F2): females portray speech from other females with a fronted GOOSE vowel. Most retracted GOOSE is found when females

quote males.

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Vocalic Resources used to VOICE Gender of Quotee

GOAT GOOSE

LOT

GOAT

[+back, +female]

GOOSE

[+front, +female]

LOT

[+low and +front, +female]

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GOAT GOOSE

LOT

GOAT

[+back, +female]

GOOSE

[+front, +female]

LOT

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GOAT GOOSE

LOT

GOAT

[+back, +female]

GOOSE

[+front, +female]

LOT

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GOAT GOOSE

LOT

GOAT

[+back, +female]

GOOSE

[+front, +female]

LOT

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Summary

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Quotated Speech - locus of linguistic creativity

VOICING

Looking at Quoted Speech forces us to consider other ways that spoken language exhibits “linguistic creativity”.

1. Quoted speech allows the speaker, or narrator, to frame or construct identities for the characters (quotees) in the story. They can alter their voices using any number of resources at their disposal.

We saw that male characters were associated with different vowel pronunciations than those used to represent females.

The results shown here point towards a female practice. Maybe due to female interviewer affect.

Also, note, I did not look at phonation type in this analysis.

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BRICOLAGE

2. VOICING involves a process of assembling socially salient linguistic features, drawn from any number of sources. We looked here at vowel realizations that vary in their indexing properties - between local, traditional and non-standard to more urban and more standard sounding.

Being able to take something found in one context and the employ it in a novel way seems to be one of the hallmarks of creativity. This re-purposing of linguistic features, has been long recognized among dialectologists as <CLICK> Refunctionalization, but it hasnʼt been described as an act of creativity.

Rather: <CLICK>

In situations of dialect contact, speakers will use features of the other dialect in restricted contexts, often with a repurposed function.

As defined, refunctionalization requires sustained situations of dialect contact. The results presented here seem to support this - all are lifelong residents of NL. However, itʼs not clear that prolonged

exposure to any dialect feature is needed to appropriate it and re-use it creatively. So, this might have be modified to allow for cases of rapid refunctionalization.

And on that note... I would like to say CLICK.

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BRICOLAGE

Refunctionalization

Rather: <CLICK>

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(Trudgill 1986)

BRICOLAGE

Refunctionalization

Rather: <CLICK>

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(Trudgill 1986)

BRICOLAGE

Refunctionalization

dialect contact

features of the other dialect repurposed function

Rather: <CLICK>

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Thank you!

Quotatives Project Research Assistants:

Evan Hazenberg, Kayla Bryant,

Jenna Edwards, Brittany Sobol, Harmony Roberts, Sarah Blackmore, Rosanna Pierson